A few days after being taken out of service, then restored with the help of the new Trump administration, the TikTok application could partly change hands. This is one of the conditions formulated by the new President of the United States after signing an executive order pushing back the application of the law on “Protecting Americans from applications controlled by foreign adversaries”. The Chinese company Byte Dance has 75 days to sell 50% of its subsidiary operating on American soil to local investors.
Why is TikTok under threat in the United States?
For years, the position of TikTok has been worrying. American authorities accuse the world's first social network of subjecting its users' data to Chinese laws, which require companies to cooperate with the government in intelligence activities. Uncle Sam's country fears that ByteDance, parent company of TikTok, will allow Beijing to access sensitive information on American citizens.
The list of contenders for the title is growing, several personalities have already expressed their desire to “sauver TikTok”. If the name of Elon Musk is obviously circulating – the businessman had offered Twitter in 2022 – he has not yet made any proposal. Billionaire Franck McCourt, owner of OM, is also expected to take over the platform used by 170 million people in the United States alone. In addition to these personalities, another name has been circulating for several days: that of James Stephen Donaldson, best known as MrBeast. He is the content creator most followed on YouTube with a community of 336 million Internet users.
A meeting with a group of investors
The idea emerged in mid-January when the YouTuber, whose content mainly revolves around competitions allowing his subscribers to win tidy sums, joked about X. “OK, agreed. I'm going to buy TikTok so it doesn't get banned”. Less than ten days later, his name was mentioned in a report related to a group of investors seeking to take over the company's U.S. operations. According to information shared earlier this week, MrBeast reportedly teamed up with Jesse Tinsleythe founder and CEO of Recruiter.com Ventures. The announcement was made by law firm Hasting LLP and by Tinsley himself.
-Nonetheless, a MrBeast spokesperson, Matthew Hiltzik, said the 26-year-old American had not yet joined any offers. “Several buyers are in talks with Jimmy. He has not entered into any exclusivity agreement with any of them”. Discussions therefore continue for the influencer, who, if necessary, would add a new string to his bow. In any case, the coming weeks promise to be eventful for the platform launched in 2017 in many territories and which has established itself as an important place politically and economically.
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